Natural gas pipeline proposed through Broome

Route would nclude Chenango, Otsego, Delaware counties

Feb. 21, 2012

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Add another line to the grid of natural gas transmission pipelines weaving their way across the Southern Tier.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and Williams Partners LP, both based in Houston, announced Tuesday that they plan to build a high-capacity conduit dubbed the "Constitution Pipeline" to transport natural gas produced in northern Pennsylvania to markets along the Eastern seaboard.

The high-pressure pipeline would run from Cabot's acreage in Susquehanna County to interconnections with the Iroquois Gas Transmission line and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline near Albany in Schoharie County, New York.

"This pipeline ... positions us with access to the premium New England and New York marketplace that has historically been constrained from both a lack of reliable supply and pipeline infrastructure," Cabot President and CEO Dan Dinges said in a statement.

"The vast majority of our investment in the pipeline will be contributed during the 2014 and early 2015 time frame," Dinges added, "when the macro environment for gas will benefit from new gas power generation and the potential for export."

The proposed pipeline would have enough capacity to transport at least 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and is slated to begin transporting natural gas in March 2015.

A map of the pipeline included in a document released Tuesday showed that it would begin in central Susquehanna County and trace a path through Broome, Chenango, Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie counties in New York.

Formal paperwork has not been filed with federal or state regulatory authorities whose approval will eventually be needed.

Jeff Hutton, Cabot's vice president of marketing, said plans for the approximately 120-mile pipeline haven't reached the stage where meetings begin with landowners along its path. The diameter of the pipeline would likely be between 24 and 30 inches, depending on the interest garnered from potential customers.

The proposed pipeline would join other current and proposed north-south natural gas transmission lines passing through the Southern Tier, including the Susquehanna Gathering System, recently purchased by Williams; DTE Energy's proposed Bluestone Pipeline; and an unnamed pipeline El Paso Corp. is planning to develop.